Ten Year Recovery
by Uma Thermus
Summary: ONE-SHOT It took Kurama ten years to regain his powers after he became Shuichi Minamino. Now, at ten, he thinks about his past and his future.


A/N: Fun, my first story! This is a one-shot. It's just something I wanted to do, I hadn't seen it done before and thought it would be cool to know what Kurama had done when he turned ten. Sort of how he'd made the transition from human to demon. Sorry about any spelling errors, I proofread carefully bu the fact is WordPad doesn't have spellcheck.

Disclaimer: I own Yu Yu Hakusho DVDs and a cat named Uma, but not Yu Yu Hakusho.

"Roses?" Shiori Minamino stared down at her son, "are you sure? They are a lot of work dear, maybe you should plant simpler flowers and work you way up?" She had been surprised when her _ten_-year-old _son_ have asked to plant roses in their small garden they kept in the back. Although Shuichi had always seemed happiest when he was working in their small plot in their backyard, and the plants seemed to come alive with his touch. It was one of the many things that confused her about her strangly aloof son.

"Yes 'Kaasan, I'm sure. We already have several types of flowers, I would like to plant roses this year." All the while Shuichi Minamino, formerly known as the legendary bandit, Yoko Kurama, sifted through the countless paper envelopes that contained a variety of seeds. He needed to find the right kind, a rose most similar to the kind he used during his days in the Makai.

_Floribunda...no...Hybrid Tea...no...Miniature rose...certainly not!...Climbing rose...perhaps..._ Shuichi held the packet of Climbing rose seeds for better inspection. "..._woody stems and strong thorns to help support themselves" _Perfect. He hurridly gathered several other packets of various seeds and walked up to his mother who was currently browsing through various flower saplings. He tossed his packets into the basket his mother carried, holding the rose envelope carefully in his hand.

"What do you think Shuichi? I think these flowers would be lovely to try" Shuichi glanced at the tag sticking out of the moist soil of the little container his mother showed him...and smiled a secret little smile to himself.

"I think so too 'Kaasan." Shiori smiled at her son and placed the foxglove shoots in her basket.

Shuichi bounded up the steps two by two when they finally returned home after shopping. He hadn't felt this kind of excitement in quite some time.

"Dinner will be ready in an hour dear!" Shiori called after her son from the kitchen, "and we'll start you're garden tomorrow!" Actually, he would start it tonight if all went as planned. The yoko-turned-ningen entered his room and quietly shut his door behind him. Ten years...that was how long it had been since he'd nearly died, escaped into the nigenkai and been reborn as Shuichi Minamino. Everything had gone to plan, he had regained his power, he was no longer human this was the year he had intentionally intended to leave his family...but now, his thoughts drifted back to his okaasan...a smile crept to his lips. No, he would not leave as he originally intended, he was not the same heartless demon. He wouldn't leave his mother.

Enough reminiscing, back to the task at hand. This exercise would show how rusty he'd become during his ten year hiatus. With a slender finger he tore open the envelope of roses he'd purchased, selecting just one seed. He carefully rolled the seed between his fingertips, feeling its slight energy mix oh so familarly with his own.

Suddenly he was nervous, a feeling he felt little as a proud yoko or even as a human boy. Amoung the torent of thoughts running through his head...would he be able to regain his former power? Would it feel the same? What would he _do _once he got it back? Perhaps return to his life of crime, only here in the nigenkai? Only that would upset his mother...perhaps after she had died of old age...but what to do until then? And then, his thoughts ever turning, how would his power be different? So far all he'd tried to do was to accelerate the rate of growth of ordinary plants, he hadn't yet tried forming weapons...but enough of doubt! He was Yoko Kurama! He was not going to allow such self-doubting thoughts continue.

He shut his eyes and focused his energy into the seed in his hand. He felt the familier tingle of youki being transfered into the seed. It buzzed with his power, a baby leaf crept from the seed, encouraged by a faint pink energy. Absently he brushed the sweat from his brow and focused further on the flower growing in his hand, it was now a full grown rose. It was a lovely rose too, sturdy stem, strong thorns and large, silky, beautiful red petals. Now, he had to concentrate, He had a sudden feeling of deja vu, he recalled a hazy memory...a memory over a millennia old, of himself as a kit. Over a thousand years ago he had been holding a rose in his small, clawed hand. His furry fox ears swiveling a top his head in excitement, a bushy silver tail lashed behind him, stirring the pale robes around his ankles. He had brought his hand down quickly just as his elder had shown him, petals swirling around him and brushing his skin leaving minor cuts, he channeled his yoki into the rose and with a pink glimmer of energy he created the infamous whip! A mere kit! He had smirked in satisfaction, his little canines gleaming. The petals settled on the forest floor and he swung the whip clumisly at a tree, only managing to give it a deep gash. He had been many decades away from forming the whip with practiced ease and slicing through solid rock without even a bat of his eye.

Now had to relearn the attacks he'd spent a lifetime perfecting-in months. Kurama allowed a frown to darken his features. Unfortunetly, along with being able to harness his yoki for weapons, it also meant his matured demonic aura could be detected by other demons or foolish demon hunters. He had to be able to defend himself and his mother, if one of them should happen to interpret him as a threat and want to fight him. It was time to train. _"Rose Whip!"_

Shiori stirred the remaining vegetables into her almost completed meal. From her spot she could see the plants she'd purchased eariler that day with Shuichi sitting on the window sill, ready to be replanted outside. She smiled as she thought of how Shuichi had lit up that afternoon when they entered the garden shop. It pleased Shiori so that see could see that side of him, wishing he'd let more people see it. Of coarse she knew that her son didn't have many friends, he never seemed to show much interest in them. Even when he was five and six he had a distant air to him, sometimes she wondered if it was becuase his father had died at such a young age. Neither of them talked much about his father, but she secrectly knew there was more to it than a fatherless young boy.

She would catch Shuichi at times with a distant look in his eyes, as if thinking so hard on something all the time. He was never an emotional child, always calm and collected, and air of almost superiority that made the other children never want to play with him, even adults were unnerved at the politeness of the little boy.

But for all his oddness, Shiori loved him. She nutured him the best she could and protected him with all she had. She thought about this as she stared absentmindedly at the scars running up and down both her forearms...proof of her love for her only son. Being the independent six year old he was...thinking he didn't need help...and then her mad dash to catch her son as he fell toward broken shards of glass. Almost as if the memory had jumped from her mind into reality she heard the faint tinkle of glass from Shuichi's room.

"Rose Whip!" In a burst of yoki Kurama sent his energy into the rose, a shower of petals flew up around him and he swung his whip around his body, successfully snapping out his wrist at the target and letting it settle in a coil at his feet, the handle in his poised hand. The cup he had placed on his desk lay in two pieces on the floor. The petals spiraled lazily to the floor. He absently noted the small cuts on his arms caused my the semi-dangerous petal storm. _A few years ago a mistake like that would have left me armless! _ A bit rusty sure, but he could feel the kitusne blood in his veins, his hands and weapon still glowing slightly from untamed energy. He smirked in satisfaction, his strangly prominent human canines gleaming. "Yoko Kurama is alive" he whispered to himself.

"Shuichi! It's time for supper! Did you break something dear? Do you need me to come up?" Kurama couldn't help but sweatdrop at the timing of his human mother.

"It's alright 'Kaasan! I only dropped a cup!" Kurama stared fondly at the needle-sharp thorns of his whip for several seconds before he picked up the broken cup and dropped it in the trash. Allowing the whip to return to seed form, he proudly nestled the seed into his hair, allowing the roots to tangle into his hair at the base of his neck. _I suppose if I am to keep up that particular habit, I'll need to grow this out a bit more. _He thought to himself as he ran his fingers through short, shaggy red hair.

He bounded happily down the stairs to where his mother waited for him with dinner.

the end

A/N: Hope it wasn't too short, I hope to see some reveiws, remember, this was my first fic! I did a bit of research and of all the rose varieties I found, Climbing Roses seemed the best to form whips from.

Okaasan and 'Kaasan- Mother

Ningenkai- Human relam

Yoki- Demon energy

(Unless I slipped a few in there unconsiously, those are all the japanese words I used)


End file.
